Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 02-11-26_WEDNESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Morning news, another jo co lawsuit, this time against Commissioner Smith, EP autos wheels up Wednesday with Eric Peters, Reviews, your calls.

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausurrilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. Great to have you here 11 minutes after six on Wheels Up Wednesday. Always one of my favorite days of the week as we get a chance to kick it around with Eric Peters, automotive journalist and genius at EPI Ato's. He's been sending me pictures of his, of his, of his, of his, uh,

removing of the automatic transmission, putting the clutch pedal in. You know, the update on getting the big orange pumpkin, his 76 Trans-Am back on the road with a manual transmission, rather. He's always talking about the joys of having a manual, so we'll see if he ends up getting that in his muscle cars. So always good conversation. A lot of politics involved in today's show, too. We'll talk with him about that. And locally, what's going on here? locally want to touch on some of the headlines this morning.

We had a Jackson County grand jury indict a 19-year-old white city man, sex abuse charges, and Eli Young, 19-year-old. He's in the Jackson County jail. Reportedly, this involving an incident last week about a man with a girl under the age of 14. So that's all we know at the point. But the grand jury pulled through on this particular one. They also found a body of the Eugene man who was. missing since last December and a hiker reportedly finding that body of Damon Petrie

near Highway 66 just outside the city of Ashland where that happened. All right. And I ended up getting a copy of a court document yesterday. This is Josephine County. This is another story which I think we're going to be hearing more about. I don't know if it's going to go anywhere. But you know how Josephine County ends up being the land of the defamation suit. Heck, yeah, I was even part of one a little while ago.

I ended up just going away, but still, needless to say, this time it involves Sandy Novak or Sandra Novak. She's the former director of finance and HR of Josephine County. And a few days ago, I guess it was accepted by the court here maybe yesterday. I'm not exactly sure when. but a million dollar defamation lawsuit against Sandra Novak against sitting commissioner Ron Smith. Now this is really, okay, what could this possibly about? Well, I'm just going to share it with you what the court documents say.

I mean, when it rains and pours in Josephine County, it's just been really something over there the last few years between recalls and various lawsuits and everybody going after one another. But what has happened here, this is, I don't know if this is just a notice under, well, it does say it's a notice under the TORC claims act. And here, let me just, you know, get to this. What this has to do and what this appears to be stemming from is from what happened on January 14th at a county meeting. a county commission meeting during a business meeting. I'm going to share what this is all about.

January 14th, this is from the document. On January 14th, 2026, Commissioner Smith was presiding as a Josephine County Commissioner, along with Commissioner Chris Barnett at the weekly business session. During the public comment period, John West was recognized. He's former commissioner.

And while speaking at the lectern, John West, raising concerns about Commissioner Smith's competence to serve his commissioner. Now, 25 minutes later, still during the official meeting, Commissioner Smith, has said, first of all, Mr. West, you're a liar, you know darn good and well. This is not my words, by the way, this is quoting here from the lawsuit. First of all, Mr. West, you're a liar. You know darn good and well that it was simple touching of the hair

because you and Sandra Novak have been friends for 20 years. and you set her up to bring her into my office to try to get sexual harassment on me. You lie. Now, I'm not an attorney, but I have a feeling that that's mostly what this lawsuit is about, the claim of setting her up to bring her into my office to try to get sexual harassment on me. Now, Commissioner Smith already admitted some wrongdoing within that, and he wrote an apology and did other things. I don't know if that has been adjudicated or if that has gone through it

or if there's been any sort of a settlement that has gone through with this so-called sexual harassment. Whereas in my opinion, sexual harassment is getting defined oddly these days. It's just my personal opinion. But still, that's the latest from Josephine County. Million-dollar lawsuit. Now, anybody can file a lawsuit. As we well know, so this is no claim of it moving forward necessarily or if it won't be,

if it'll be thrown out by the courts, we don't know. But this is where we find ourselves right now in Josephine County. Yep, another million dollar defamation. So this with a sitting county commissioner. What else is going on here? Let's see. International migration. This was an interesting one.

Amy Hapenstall saw this article and clued me. into it from KTVZ. Thank you very much for this, Amy. I always appreciate when someone clues me in on an article they think maybe I hadn't seen. Most of, you know, I was talking about how Oregon's population growth, most of Oregon's population growth, and we're actually growing now after having been losing population for a number of years. It was really interesting about that as I'm wondering, well, where is this?

And I was talking about that with Herman yesterday during our segment in talking about the growth and I wouldn't think that rock-ripped conservatives would necessarily be moving to Oregon because of the political risk. Now, we conservatives who are behind enemy lines, so to speak, it's kind of the way I felt sometimes. Maybe you feel that way too from time to time. But yeah, that is the story. But what they're reporting, what the census department is reporting is that most of Oregon's population growth in 2024 and 2025 came through, international immigration. This according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Now, I'd like to know what kind of international immigration, because remember, other states, rather, that are not sanctuary states, they've been cracking down on illegal immigration. I'm curious if what the Census Department is actually saying is that our growth is through illegal immigration. It doesn't say. But anyway, the Oregon Employment Department is saying Monday in a news release about its analysis, the dynamic was even more pronounced over the longer period between 2020 and 2025 when immigration was the only positive component of population change. Between July of 2024 and July 2025, more than 6,100 people or 9,600 people, more people moved into Oregon from other countries than moved out.

That was more than four times the net number of people who moved into Oregon from other states. So we're not getting it from other states. We're getting it from other countries. And do you think that we have, we're just having an invasion of all sorts of people coming here under green cards? Or could this actually be illegal immigration? Anyway, since 2020, net international immigration added 56,000 to Oregon's population, net domestic migration, resulting in a drop of 670. And so our natural birth rate is relatively low,

and there have been lots of people leaving Oregon. In fact, I've known several conservatives who have moved to Idaho and Tennessee, one of my colleagues, Don Hurley, ended up moving his family to Tennessee. Doing really well now. They're bakers, opened up a bakery, doing really well there, in a relatively free state of Tennessee. But yeah, they're saying that most of it is international migration.

Now, when you hear migration and immigration, I'm thinking that a lot of this could be illegal immigration. That's just my opinion. But they're not really talking about it. The Census Bureau is not really being very specific, you know, about these statistics. But I thought there was an interesting story one way or the other. And how are you doing, huh? 20 minutes after six.

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paid for abundance. Hi, I'm Amber Rose with Siscue Pump Service, and I'm on KMED. 22 after 6, join in at 770 5633-770 KMED. A little bit later this morning, we're going to talk with Ryan Staley. To be after 8 o'clock. Ryan Staley, interesting story that he's been tracking down. They're finding a bunch of radical instruction manuals, so to speak, that have been making their way into government school systems.

and that activist teachers have been openly, I guess they're kind of proud of it, openly training their little robots, their kids in the classroom to become activists. And I was thinking about what was happening the other week with all the kids that were getting out of the high schools and the middle schools and going out there and protesting against ICE here in Southern Oregon and also protesting the climate. Yeah, the climate thing. And polluter pays, polluter pays, mouthing the terms coming from Senator Jeff Golden's bill that he has reintroduced.

Polluter pays, in other words, those kids would be paying. But, you know, they just don't, they just don't connect it. I get this. But apparently some actual training manuals that are making the rounds within the teacher's circles in which, hey, this is how you turn the kids. into, now I'm going to exaggerate this a bit, throat-punching Antifa activists who hate their parents, yeah, who are going no contact, no contact, I don't know, it doesn't go that far, but, but essentially, yeah, they're getting activists, being activists on taxpayer dollars,

so they have union contracts and all the rest of it, I have continued to insist that I will continue to bang that gong again and again and again, that getting on the school board and reforming what is happening in government education doing all that that's wonderful that's great that's about saving the next generation or future generations of children but as far as saving the kids right now do your best to get them out to get them out of that system right now if at all you possibly can't that's all i'll say about that and yes i know that there are some very good and very kind teachers within the system. But there is a rising percentage, rising percentage.

We've even run into those here in Southern Oregon every now and then. Remember there was the teacher? I don't know whatever happened to that teacher, elementary school here in the 549C district, if I recall correctly. And she was a teacher that online called herself or refers to herself as Slytherland, and she was just getting in the face of MAGA kids. kids of of mega parents, people who did not come in and tow the line politically according to her. And there's just all sorts of, you know, now I know that teachers can control their classrooms, certainly,

but no, they cannot control the political orientation of the kids, of the charges. But boy, they sure are working on it. They sure are. And like I said, Rinn Staley ends up having the receipts from them. of all these manuals that they're fighting. And, you know, activists, how to get the kids, you know, thinking like, well, the very hard left-wing unionized schools. Okay, there we go.

OPB reporting a story this morning. I'll be curious to see where this goes. Oregon lawmakers proposed criminal penalties for alarming and threatening public officials. Lawmakers Monday hearing testimony on Senate. Bill 1530 and Senate Bill 1516. It would make threatening a public official, including a candidate for public office, a crime of aggravated harassment. It would be the least severe category of a felony.

That's interesting, though, because if you have a felony, there goes your gun rights, right? Carrying potential sentences of up to five years in prison and a $125,000 fine. Part of this legislation includes the provision in a broad. broader public safety legislative package, which also empowers magistrate judges to make pre-trial release decisions. So a non-judge judge, a magistrate judge, like an administrative judge. Is that the way this is, if I understand this correctly? Both measures specify that the person who issues threatening phone, electronic, or written communications must intend to subject the official to alarm by conveying a threat to the public official or their family that

vows to inflict serious physical injury. Now, the question I would have for you this morning is, do politicians and government officials need extra protection? Because it strikes me that aren't existing harassment and crime laws adequate to handle something like this? Do we need to have a special category? Do politicians need a special category? Now, I've talked to enough politicians over the years, and they talk about, yeah, yeah, people call that stuff.

People, you know, say lots of things, and that's just the way it goes sometimes. You have to have a thick skin to be a politician. But do you think a law like this might get abused? I'd be really careful about this, wouldn't you? I'd want to be really careful about this before you hand politicians another law when, you threaten me. I said I'd like to, well, some people have talked about the threat of recall. We've had elected officials that talked about a threat of recall as a threat, as if it is a threat to their physical existence. I think that happened in Josephine County, didn't it?

You know, people sitting around there complaining, they're talking about recall and backroom deals and all the rest of it. I don't know. Well, anyway, I would be really careful. I hope they don't do this. It strikes me that the same rules that would apply to whether or not you are or I are subject to physical threats and police officers have to be called in to stop it, do restraining orders, all the rest of it. I think it's perfectly adequate for politicians, isn't it?

Or is it not? Maybe you'll let me know about that. We can kick it around off and on. We can do that a whole bunch more here on Wheels Up Wednesday. Speaking of which, Eric Peters, we'll get him on the show here just a few minutes and talk about what's going on in his world with the great pumpkin and other things on the great open road. Also, remember that the great thing about the EP segment is that you can consider. call and ask questions or share your stories about what's going on with your car too. And we'll

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Last Saturday, a hiker reportedly finding the body of 60-year-old Damon Petrie of Eugene. This happened near Mill Creek Drive and Highway 66 just outside the city of Ashland. Cause of death not yet announced pending an autopsy and talks report. Sandra Novak, the former director of finance and HR for Josephine County, files a million-dollar defamation suit against current sitting county commissioner, Ron Smith. According to court documents, it's connected with statements Commissioner Smith made at a January 14th business meeting in which he asserted former Commissioner John West, also at that same meeting, conspire to set up Commissioner Smith to commit sexual harassment. And the Salvation

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News Talk 1063 KMED. Every Wednesday we talk with Eric Peters, Automotive Journalist and Genius at EPATOs.com. It is Wheels up Wednesday. Eric, how the heck goes it with the big orange pumpkin? We've got to get an update here because you have been working for weeks now on getting a manual transmission put into the Great Pumpkin, your muscle car, from 1976 or TransM. What's the story there, sir?

Well, I'm a little worse for wear, but I am victorious. It took me a couple days. Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. When you say worst for the wear, as someone who has worked on old cars and it is not all that flexible, I just beat the heck out of my body. Is that what happened with you? Oh, yeah.

You should see my left hand. It looks like I got into a fight with about six cats. I mean, I've got tears and rips and gouges all over me. And the reason why, it turned out to be, so far the most difficult part of this job was removing the original factory automatic brake pedal, which is larger. And you have to take that out, obviously, in order to be able to install the clutch pedal and then the correct brake pedal that goes with that combination. But to do that, you have to reach way up underneath the dash where there's a bolt that holds the, that's got a nut on the other side of it.

That's what the brake pedals and the clutch pedals pivot and swing on. But it's impossible to get at it. You can't see it. You have to kind of like show. your hand up through all kinds of wiring harnesses and metal things that are sharp to try to get your hand in a tool on it so that you can hold one while turning the other in order to remove that. It took me two days of off and on effort to get the thing out of there. Oh, I am so sympathetic with you because there was a time when I was replacing a master cylinder on that 82 van of mine, the Volkswagen van again, and it's always a cramped one to start with. If you're really smart, you'll just take off the dashboard.

And if I ever had to do it again, I think I'd take off the Volkswagen van again. I think I take off the dashboard, that kind of thing. But all, I can't tell you, you know, fluid down my hand, just ripping my hand up, and the switches, everything, all the bolts just so inaccessible. So I have, you have my sympathy, money. I got it. I felt so good once I got it out and put the new pedals in because I really think that ultimately is going to be the toughest part of this whole job. I'm almost done now at this point.

I just need to get the shift linkage for the transmission to put that on the transmission before I can put the transmission in. The other thing I still have to do is to cut the hole in the drive shaft tunnel for where the shift linkage comes out. And I'm hoping I'm going to get to that in the next couple of days. I'm kind of curious. You had talked about how those general motor cars used to have the, you know, they would have the body kind of pre-drilled for certain things, including, you know, holes where, whether it had an automatic or a manual transmission, you can just kind of bolt things in. Do they have a hole there or a little outline that indicates, it's where they would punch a hole in the body for the shift linkage or not?

No, but I do have a template for that, and it's very straightforward. You know, when you look at it, and plus it's in an area where it's easy to work at. Good. The one thing, though, that does have a template, which is handy, which I should bring up, there's a rod, obviously, that connects to the clutch pedal, that goes through the firewall that actuates the Z bar and the mechanism that engages and disengages the clutch. And GM ever so thoughtfully did use a universal. There's a floor trim plate that goes up underneath the,

the kick panel there on the driver's side that has the hole in the exact place. I mean, the hole, but you can see where it's supposed to go. So all you've got to do is line up that hole with your drill bit and punch a hole through there and you're good to go. So you almost have it done, though. That's great news. I'm looking forward to seeing it out on the road. I'll bet you are too, huh?

Oh, me too. Absolutely. Yep. All right. Let's shift to some other things going on here. I love that story you had in here about forced masker Newsom told that forced unmasking isn't lawful. I'm laughing.

It's such a clown show, isn't it? Oh, I know. I know. I mean, and so disingenuous because, of course, Newsom was one of the most aggressive and vicious enforcers of the mask mandates during COVID. You know, everybody remembers that. But now he's all upset because federal goons are marching around wearing their masks, which, by the way, are very effective in this case because they prevent anybody from knowing

who the goons are, you know. And you know, and I'm like you, though, I have mixed feelings about this whole situation because the challenge, you know, you don't want to. get to the point where the police turn into an anonymous force, you know, that sort of thing. You want to be able to identify people. And yet, I would say also say that the doxing has been really serious too. People get hired to do a job. And then we have the left going after everybody really, really hard. But I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. Oregon's trying to do the same thing, by the way, I would add. Yeah, well, so do I. But I think the solution here,

in the first place, people who do the doxing and threatening and so on, you know, you can prosecute them. That's the purpose of having laws to deal with people. Except this is Oregon and we have selective prosecution is what we do here. But I don't like, I think fundamentally it's a very, very bad idea to have any kind of law enforcement activity where you can't hold people accountable. So, you know, I'm not saying that they're all doing bad things, but I am saying, you know, if in order to be able to deal with things when when things go little sideways, you need to know who it is. And, you know, if they have nothing to hide, they shouldn't have anything to worry about. They tell us that all the time. I don't think there's anything illegitimate about expecting any law enforcement operating in the public to be identifiable.

That's just my opinion on that. Anyway, but back to Newsom, though, I don't think there's any way that the federal government was going to let a state government tell federal agents what they're going to do. I mean, that's just kind of the reality of the situation, I guess. Oh, sure. Sure. For my point of view, it was just fun watching Newsom, you know, twist in the wind and, you know, have to pretzelize himself being against masks. when he was for masking before. Gotta love it. 7705633 if you wanted to talk with Eric Peters this morning.

We'd like to get your calls too on Wheels Up Wednesday. Eric will take a break. We'll get into some reviews and other things this morning here too. But always happen to have you on Wheels Up Wednesday and your call, 7705633 on the Bill Meyer show. If you farm and ranch, there's always an offseason to-do list. Two dogs fabricating can check some of those boxes so you're ready for spring. Two dogs expertly repairs busted equipment. fabricates new implements to meet specific needs.

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News Talk 1063, KMED. You're waking up with the Bill Myers Show. Back with Eric Peters, automotive journalist. Eric, you've got a lot of people want to talk with you. You're ready to hit the calls? I sure am. All right, here we go. Let's go to Peter first.

Hello, Peter. You got a question about a decent engine. Good morning. My question for you was I have a couple of 80s Toyota trucks, and one of them in particular is a camper that I should care because I'm not sure if I can consistently. get over the pass and make it to Colorado. Somebody mentioned to me that there's a little Cummins diesel engine that I could put in

that thing for, that's a four something, four T maybe, Cummins engine that he said, you could put one of those in there and you'd double your mileage and blah, blah, blah. What did he ever heard of it or any ideas? Well, not specifically, but generally speaking, you know, one of the nice things, about a vehicle of the vintage that you've got is that it's easy to do that sort of thing. If you're mechanically inclined, you can put almost anything in that will physically fit. So it's just a matter of finding what would fit. Now, I would personally look in to see what was potentially available in similar vehicles,

like older models or slightly newer models of the same vehicle. What was optional? What could you have put in there potentially from the factory? Because that makes it easier. But there are a lot of options that you've got. And, yeah, I mean, putting in a diesel engine that's going to give you more torque is going to give you that extra oomph that you need to get over the past. as you say.

Yeah, do you, now, Peter, I want to ask. Any guesses as to what, I guess, if it's a diesel engine, it's going to be used, I should assume, and it's still going to be good, or it's been reprocessed or something. Well, it depends on the engine. You know, I mean, you know, if you're getting anything used, it depends on the condition. You know, how many, how many miles has it got, things of that nature. Hey, Peter, Peter, if you don't mind me interjecting here, Peter, you have one of those Toyoters, like the dolphin type of, yeah, yeah, yeah.

really slow. So you know it's that vintage Eric, Eric, that we've been talking about before. Yes, I just, I'm not super familiar with them, but I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I would just, in fact, what I would do, Peter, is go online and search out user groups of that, of that vehicle, because there are a lot of them still on the road right now. And I would be willing to bet you there are other people who have figured out some way to get more power. I mean, it was pathetically powered from the factory. I'll give you that, okay? Yeah. It's great if you're on the flats. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Very heavy. Hey, good luck on that. But yeah, it's amazing, Eric, that, you know, how many online aficionados you'll find that are with certain classes. Oh, yeah, that's one of the great things about our time, you know, with all the unhappiness and negative things that are going on, the wealth of information that's available, you know, even, you know, I encounter a problem.

I'm trying to figure out what to do. YouTube, just YouTube and all these other places. There's somebody out there. has had a similar problem and figured it out ahead of you. And it's a snap to go out there, generally speaking, and find that information out and deal with whatever the problem is. Somebody has been where you are right now. That's the way it goes.

Let me go to some more calls here. Good morning, call. You're on with Eric Peters. Who's this? Welcome. Good morning. It's Vicki from the Applegate. Hi, Vicki.

What's your question? Well, I have two comments. First of all, I just caught the end of what you were talking about, somebody being recalled that it's a threat to their life. Oh, my beeping God, are you serious? You know what? If they are getting recalled, they're not doing their job. And I think a lot of these people in politics are using January 6th as an excuse to have extra protection.

When you go into politics, you are a public figure. You are putting yourself out there. And if you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, I don't think you should be threatened. Go into the witness protection program. Yeah, well, you know, by the ways, Eric doesn't know what we were talking about, what I was talking about before that, Vicki, but I want to let you know. The state legislature is wanting to put in additional protections for the politicians, you know, for threats and threats of violence, things like that.

And I just would have thought that regular, the regular laws were okay, Eric. I don't know if you've heard about it. Well, yeah, I agree. I don't like the idea of special privileges for special people. All right. It just, oh, my God, it made me so mad. And I'm normally just like an easygoing. I know. So you were spitting on that.

Did you have a car? Well, I come from a sailor family, and the beeps were not beeps at the time. Okay. Well, I'm glad you didn't call it that time. Now, do you have a question for Eric, though? You have a question for Eric? Yeah. Well, it's a comment.

My 72 Ford career in the back, it has a little, door where you can access the fuel pump in the gas tank. And honestly, I think that they should equip all trucks with those little trap doors. It makes it so much easier to access that. And I'm just wondering, why don't they do that? Good question. Because they want you to go to the dealer is why, because how many people are going to deal with either pulling the bed or pulling the gas tank out, which is realistically the only way that you can get at that fuel pump assembly if it's in the tank, in the gas tank. And it's an awful job. I've done that multiple times. Okay. Well, that's why because they love you, Vicki, okay? Yeah, they love us. They really care.

Boy, thanks for the call. I had a friend, a DJ friend of mine in Barstow had a 72 Ford Courier. Those were actually great little trucks for their time. Are there many of them made? Oh, yeah, they made a lot of those. You know, all those little trucks that used to be commonly available. the Chevy Love with the diesel. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And remember the truck version of the rabbit that all was available around the same time with a diesel engine, too. They were slow as all get out, but they were fantastic little vehicles. Yeah, of course, the same truck in that diesel rabbit is the one in that van again. So you want to talk about slow? I feel your pain. All right, let me go to the next line here. You're over there at Peters. Hi, who's this? Welcome.

Good morning, gentlemen. He's not in cave junction at itself. Except for I was enjoying listening. to you guys. And as you started talking, my semi-truck grew a four-diesel quality, no, four-de-f quality warning. And I have a red little idiotic. Okay, yeah, I'm having trouble, I'm having trouble hearing you here. So your truck, your truck blew the DEF code or something like that? What? Exactly, poor quality. I had just stopped it off. My question now is, when are they going to is there any movement

to get this debt requirement removed from the world because I'm probably going to break down today because this truck will go into a D rate

and a protection. Yeah, it'll be limping, right? It'll be limping. Won't be doing much. Yeah,

they do that to punish you. You know, because otherwise people might not put the DEF in the system. so it'll essentially go into useless mode, meaning it'll just crawl down the road and that's the best you can get out of it. It's terrible.

And you know, and DEF has made, you know, diesel's one of the great attractions of diesel's used to be that they were simpler than gas engines. Less hassle, less maintenance. Now actually they're worse in a lot of ways because you have to do things like regularly fill up this DEF tank with urea. That's basically what it is. Yeah.

Which is part of the emission system for diesel engines. And it's also not cheap either. You know, if you add it up cumulatively, how much of that DEF you have to put in. It's just, it's obnoxious. Now, I wish that there were some effort to get rid of that. But unfortunately, I don't think that there is. Yeah, sorry about that, Keith. But you know what I was reading is that the federal government, and Eric, I think you

probably concur with me, the federal government has decided to back off. This is under the Trump administration. They have been backing off the shops or the prosecuting of shops over in the Midwest, I think. that were actually involved in taking the DEF systems out of diesel trucks. Did you hear about that one? Eric? I did. And that is a step in the right direction.

But still, I'd like to see, I'd like to just see common sense return, cost-benefit analysis with regard to emissions. You know, most people, it's a complicated subject, and most people who are not in the business don't really understand it. But it's at the point now where these minuscule,

fractional differences in emissions that have no meaningful impact on air quality are used to justify these own. imposition. And if we had a sane system, it would be, okay, if we're going to do this, what are we going to get out of it? What is it going to cost people? And is it worth it? Unfortunately, there is no requirement that they do a cost-benefit analysis or any kind of public debate about these things. The regulatory bureaucracy just decrees. It must be so and leaves it up to the manufacturers to figure out how to comply with it. So, Keith, best of luck to you. And we pray for a non-breakdown, okay, that it doesn't go too much into limp there and get it

all figured out, okay? You'd be well and keep it between the lines. 770563. It's open phones, Eric Peters, EP autos. By the way, now, I guess in many states, including Oregon, if your vehicle gets old enough, then you could probably delete the DF when the time comes or the DEF, and then nobody would say anything. But if you're a state that actually inspects the vehicle, that won't work, right? Yeah, it really depends where you are. I mean, I'm fortunate. in that even though I live in Virginia, which is in many ways not exactly the best place to be if you're a freedom-minded person. But the rural counties, and I happen to live in one, don't have annual emissions requirements,

or annual emissions testing requirements. So you can, I hate to use this language, get away with modifying your vehicle to not have this stuff. But yeah, you know, if you're in a place where you have to deal with that, and everything's, everything, you know, they hook your vehicle up now to a computer. And the computer will narc on you if you've done anything. They know it. So, you know, it's playing with proverbial fire because if you fail, you can't get your plates renewed, your registration renewed, and then effectively you really can drive the vehicle. Now, here in Oregon, once you're over 20 years old, I believe, then no longer have to get that testing done.

So heck, you can do with it what you want, put a carburetor on it, put just a fuel injection system on your vehicle, whatever you want. Anyway, let's go to what. Speaking of that, you know, it's just, it's so dumb, a simple fraudulent body fuel injection. system with a standalone computer provides probably 90-something percent of the benefit in emissions reductions that we've had with modern vehicles. And that is that is like the apotheosis of technological achievement. And everything since then has been needless complexity, needless cost for many, meaning, you know, minimal gain, if any. Yeah, the the gangrene angels dancing on the pin, so to speak. Okay. All right. Let's go to next caller. Hi, you've been waiting

for a while. Good morning. Who's this? Hi. The computer will narc on you, man. I haven't had that term in years. Yeah, the narcking, right? Yeah, I love it. Good morning, Yelp man. Jeff and Selma. Hello, Jeff.

First off, Eric, you did pull the driver's seat to do that, didn't you? Oh, of course. There's no way I've gotten my big self on that underneath that dash without taking out the driver's seat. No way. No, I was laying flat on my back getting poked by all the other hardware and mounting points that are on the floor pan. Yeah, I'm just a little guy. So I used to be able to do that without pulling the seat. But one thing I want to warn you of is when you go to cut the hole in the tunnel,

you've got that loop pile carpet. Oh, yeah, I'm going to cut that away. I'm pulling that away first. I know I don't want to get it caught in the drill. I've been there and done that. Okay. You'll spread that out of there like a sweater. Oh, man.

I've done that. I think everybody has done that who has worked on their own car, at least once you've done that, haven't you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, and then when it comes to the fellow with that, somebody telling them about the Cummins Diesel, that's the 4BT. And then, but that's a new engine. That's, you're not going to find those used. And then now they have a smaller one called the R28, or 2.8.

So. The R28, so you're talking about the, the man who has the old Toyota dolphin, the old, okay. Yeah. And then once you throw start throwing torque at that drug. live line, you're going to start tearing up transmissions in rear end. So you're going to have to do a little bit of... You're beefing it up, right? Okay.

Yeah. All right. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate the call, as always. 770K. N.D. We'll grab another one here on AP Auto's wheels up Wednesday. Hi, good morning. Hello. Hey, Bill. Is this a... Is it me? It is you. Hi. Hey, Bill. I appreciate you taking my call. My name's

Andrew. A longtime listener. Thank you. I love your show. Anyway, sir. The question I have is, what is Eric's opinion of the Dodge Rebel with the Hurricane motor? The Dodge Rebel? Okay. Yep. You mean the trim version of the Ram 1500? Yeah, with the Hurricane motor, which is the Twin Turbo V6. Yeah, boy, well, I'm ambivalent about it.

On one hand, it's obviously got a lot of power, and in-line six-cylinder engines have a number of attributes in their favor. including smoothness. On the other hand, it's a pretty new engine. It hasn't been in circulation very long. So we don't really know yet what the long-term prospects of that engine are going to be. And me, I'm just a very conservative guy. And if I buy a vehicle, I'm looking to keep it for probably 15 or 20 years. That's just me. Your mileage might vary. I'd want to wait and see. You know, I'd want that I'd want that thing to be out on the road for maybe five years-ish to get some real-world data as far as how reliable it is long-term. Right now, if I were looking at of ram truck, I probably default back to the hemi.

Gotcha. Okay, hey, I appreciate you answer my question for me. Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah. Now, were you looking at the hemie by chance? Just curious. Me, no, I wasn't. I had a rebel as a rental truck for the last couple of weeks, and I really was liking it.

And, yeah, so, and I'm in the market for a pickup right now, and it's kind of between the rebel or at Tacoma. Mm-hmm. So, but, you know, the same thing he told me is what my research has turned up to. You know, the Tacoma's got a truck. track record versus the hurricane does not have a track record yet. Yeah, everyone's getting kind of scared of trying out any new engine as of late, because it seems that all the manufacturers seem to have been having more difficulty with their compliance engines,

Eric, would that be a fair assessment? Absolutely. They're much more complicated. And, of course, these turbocharged engines, you know, that hurricane is a 3-liter 6 as opposed to a 5.7 V8. So in order to make V8 levels of power, it's got two turbos on it and a lot of boost. And so it's, you know, it's an inherently more complex system to begin with. And then the engine is literally under pressure all the time because it's boosted. And, you know, that's fine in terms of producing a lot of numbers.

But there was a time when turbos were pretty much restricted to high performance vehicles as an add-on, as a power enhancer. Now effectively what they're being used for is to make up for the fact that engines are smaller. They're a replacement for displacement. I appreciate your call, by the way. It's 6508 of KMD. Wheels up Wednesday. Hey, Eric, before we take off, let's get on your latest review here. And it's the 2026 Ford Ranger, which, as you have also pointed out in another article,

boy, it's a lot bigger. In fact, the Ford Ranger, the mini pickup is practically the size of a half-ton truck from not that long ago, isn't it? Yeah, it's huge. I mean, did you see the picture that I posted with it? It shows the Ranger Park next to an old Ranger, which was last made in 2011, back when they were still compacts. And it's startling how big they are. And if you look at them dimensionally, and I did, it turns out that the current ranger, and this is true of all the so-called mid-sized trucks now, they are about as long as something

like a 2005 half-ton truck. I cite the Ford F-150 from that era as an example. And yet at the same time, it's a little weird because these big trucks come with small beds only. Like the Ranger only comes with a crew cab and this little five-foot bed. And I guess it's because a lot of people who buy these trucks, they're not really buying them primarily for a truck. They're primarily buying them to haul people. And hey, it's nice to have. have that little stubby bed in the back for when the dog is wet, you don't want to have them ride up front. What is your overall impression of the vehicle itself?

Is the engine solid or is it a brand new engine? These are the kind of things that all people are asking now when they're going out on the new car lots these days. Well, it's immensely powerful. The standard engine is a turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine that makes more power than the V8s. We're making a half-ton trucks in the early 2000s. No kidding.

And it can tow 7,500 pounds. You know, most of the old compact trucks, they maxed out at 5,000 pounds. And they typically came standard with a 3,500 pound max tow rating. So from a capability and functionality point of view, yeah, you're getting a lot more. On the other hand, it's a little four-cylinder engine with a turbo, you know. And going back to the same issue that you were talking about, a smaller engine under continual stress is what you're saying, ultimately. Yeah, I mean, I've got an O2 Nissan frontier. and, you know, it's what, 24 years old, I guess now, 24 years. It's almost a quarter century old.

And the engine is still completely tight. It has great compression. Probably it'll go for another 100,000 miles. And, you know, the old ranger's four-cylinder engine. They weren't speedy. But, you know, if you didn't, as long as you change the oil fairly regularly, that was a 300,000 mile engine. I don't know whether these little highly pressured turbocharged engines are going to last that long. I'm kind of curious if we've been sold a bill of goods with every vehicle, I mean, every vehicle that's coming out right now, supposedly touting really fast performance, that kind of thing. I wonder if we almost get, uh, uh, get spoiled to a certain extent in which every vehicle is supposed to be really, really fast, but then we end up having

vehicles that are more disposable because of that. Well, and do people really use it? And again, I'm a guy who likes performance cars, but the point is for the most part, you know, if you're driving from A to B, going to the grocery store, picking the kids up, dropping them off, do you really need 300 something horsepower to do that? Well, If you want to get a 21 mile per hour speed ticket in downtown Medford from the speed cam, which we all love, by the way, I guess you're asking for it. This strikes me as a little bit, you know, it's a little bit gratuitous. I would like it if the manufacturers in Ford, for example, would at least offer a standard non-turbo charge, just a workhorse engine, you know, for somebody who doesn't care about getting to 60 and six seconds, but does care about getting 300,000 miles out of their engine. Yeah, bring back a 2.4-liter non-turbo-charged, just 140, 150 horsepower engine, right, for the basic vehicle, right? And also it would be substantially less expensive. If you look at the prices of these mid-sized trucks now, you know, they're $40,000 almost for a four-wheel bribe iteration, which is crazy.

These little trucks that you used to be able to get, they typically stickered. The old Ranger, when it was last available, it was about $18,000. Now, the Ranger, what's it's tickering for now? It's curious. It starts at what, gosh, I don't have the number in front of you, but it starts well into the $30,000 range. I think $33,000 or $34,000. Yes. I mean, that's a heavy lift and that's for two-wheel drive. If you add four-wheel drive, you know, you're probably $35,000, $36,000. But still, but still impressed with the truck from what I could tell.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Very impressive. It's more capable, it's more powerful. And, you know, it offers, they now have a raptor version of it, which has like a 405 horsepower twin turbo V6 in it. You know, it's a ferocious thing. but it's also a very expensive thing. Eric, you wrote about the Jeffrey Epstein situation and the big dump of documents and such.

And there's a part of me, you know, the more you read, the worst it seems to get, you know, everywhere you're looking there. Of course, I did find it interesting that Donald Trump is now, in some ways, exonerated by some of this. They were talking about him blowing the whistle on Epstein in Florida. You know, remember that Acosta investigation.

I thought that was pretty interesting. At least they're, you know, able to, declare this. I think what bothers me most of all is not that there are a whole bunch of perverts in high places, right? And I am bothered by that. I think we all are about that. But the fact is, is that they're openly admitting that it's, that these are government intelligence operations, but have you noticed any call for reigning in government intelligence operations and even being into full disclosure over that? Is it just me? I think, I think probably the most significant aspect of this is the way it's just demoralizing people. You know, you and I, you know, we drive by a cop not

wearing a seatbelt, right? And we'll get pulled over and we'll be given a ticket for not wearing a freaking seatbelt. But these people can commit the most sordid, atrocious, evil things. And there's never any accountability. Dr. Fauci's walking free. Weepi Wolinsky is walking free. You know, all the people who did all those things to us during COVID, not one of them has even been brought forth, you know, to face an FBI investigation, let alone these creeps that we've been finding out with regard to the Epstein thing. And so, you know, what are we supposed to do with that? You know, rules for thee and rules for me. Like, you know, you and I and the rest of the proletariat, you know, we're supposed to obey and do everything that we're told, even when it comes to these penny-ante

things that involve no harm to anybody. But these people who are actually causing the most egregious kinds of harm to other people, including kids. Nothing happens to them. Yeah. Well, what really concerns me to is in our so-called representative republic or democracy, a good percentage of them are likely under blackmail by foreign intelligence services and maybe even our own intelligence services too. And you would think that there would be a little more concern about rooting that all out just for that reason if no others. Yeah, except perhaps they're all compromised. You know, I think that's really the darkest aspect of this. The fact that nothing's being done probably is because all of them are somehow ensnared in this. And if they let it

all out, then it's going to be game over for the system. It will just be a complete systemic collapse, I think, which might not be a bad thing. Rout them all out as far as I'm concerned. Total versus zero accountability. Great article over on E Pianos.com. Eric, always a good talk. And we'll catch you next week. Don't know if you know what next week's review topic will be, but do you? I don't know. Sometimes you do. I actually do. It's going to be an interesting pickup. It's going to be the Honda Ridgeline, which technically is in a truck. But, you know, for all intents and purposes, can be used as one. I have to tell you those kind of hybrid trucks like the Ridgeline,

and they're very useful, I think, for 99% of suburbanites, really when we're... Usually. Yeah. When we're looking for a truck. And by the way, it comes standard with a V6, and it comes standard with all-wheel drive, which is an important point because all of the other trucks, they're standard with two-wheel drive. And as you know, a two-wheel drive truck is pretty sketchy and bad weather.

Whereas, you know, all-wheel drive will pretty much get you anywhere you need to go. shy of a massive blizzard. You know, and you have to, so you have to pay a few thousand dollars more typically to get the four-wheel drive in a conventional truck. Well, tell us about it next week because the V-6, as we know today, the V-6, ooh, the luxury engine model. Yeah, yeah. All right, Eric.

Hey, thanks a bunch. And safe troubles. Hopefully we'll be talking about you driving the big pumpkin around, the big orange pumpkin with a brand new manual transmission, okay? Very, very soon. The Death Star nearest completion. Talk soon, all right. Eric Peters.

E.P.O.O.com.